1. Field of the Invention
The technical scope of the present invention is that of devices intended to reduce the visible and infrared signatures of vehicles, in particular combat vehicles, with respect to their exhaust gases.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, studies attempting to reduce the infrared signature of armoured vehicles have mainly concentrated on the reduction in radiation of the armoured structure by associating techniques to reduce the temperature of the skin and stealthy materials. It now seems that for a stealthy armoured vehicle, the plume of its exhaust gases is a major element in its detectability. Moreover, the evolution of thermal camera technologies allows hot sources to be detected in the land environment at very large distances. To improve the stealth of these vehicles with respect to the evolution of infrared sensors, it is thus now necessary for the energy level radiated by the exhausts of armoured vehicles to be reduced.
Patent FR-2 776 705 proposes an efficient device to uniformly dilute the gases of a military vehicle.
This device has drawbacks, however. Indeed, when the device operates constantly, the drawbacks generated by the device are also constant: when the tank is immersed in water there is the risk of water entering the exhaust circuit, and thus of the engine stalling, and the substantial increase in temperature of the cooling elements. If this device is very useful during operations where the vehicle's stealth is all important, it becomes a hindrance, for example, during maintenance operations where the operators risk getting burned or when fording where it is necessary to mount snorkels.